No offence, but every time I see this word “Liebster”, I think about “lobster”… I have never tasted lobsters before, but people told me they (the lobsters, not the people) have a very potent, strong flavor and one should never eat too much of them in one go.

Living in Australia, the land of prawns (not shrimps!), the only lobsters I have ever come close to are in the tanks of Chinese restaurants, their claws miserably tied together and their two dark beady eyes staring out of their tank’s murky glass walls. I was once in Boston but missed the chance of having lobsters for dinner. Instead, I had scallops.

Writing an English blog is always a challenge to me, as it is my second language. If you look at my articles closely, there are always errors here and there, or something so awkward in the eyes of native English speakers that it makes them grimace. (“People simply don’t say it that way!” I am often told.)

But to me, that is the valuable thing of thinking and writing in two languages. You borrow something from one language and blend it into the other, and before long, you have a bunch of new words and phrases, meanings and metaphors, and imageries. The wild visions I have when I read things wrong! (Example: I once saw an English sign on top of a distant building that was half in, half out of a shadow cast by another building. Instead of “Glass Cut to Size”, I read it as “Ass Cut to Size”.)

OK, let’s get down to business. The rules for the Leibster are as the following:

(1) Thank the person who nominated you.

(2) Answer the 11 questions your nominator has asked you.

(3) Nominate 11 other bloggers for the Liebster Award, ask them 11 new questions “that you make up yourself to torture them” (quoting my nominator here). The Liebster Award should be sent to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers, to hopefully increase their readership.

Stephen King’s The Stand… This is the first book I grabbed when my family and I had to run from bushfires back on February 7, 2009. (The second and third books I took were Hannibal by Thomas Harris and The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. Check them out. I could survive anywhere just with these three books.)

(2) If you could steal someone’s life, whose would it be and why?

I would never steal someone’s life. Mine is the best, because I am doing something I truly enjoy.

(3) What place do you dream of one day visiting?

My birthplace, Taiwan. I haven’t been there since 2001… These days traveling as a group of four is just too expensive to even consider.

(4) If you could time travel, what time would you visit and why?

I wouldn’t do it even if I could… Life at the moment is interesting enough.

(5) What goal do you always plan to accomplish but never quite get there?

To become a successful writer… Now I translate and publish the English-language writings of other writers as Chinese ebooks, but I believe one day I’ll get to be a famous writer with my own book(s).

(6) What’s your favorite word?

I don’t know. I have never thought about this… Perhaps “Love”?

(7) What food couldn’t you live without?

Meat… I don’t think I can ever become a vegetarian.

(8) What is a strange fact about you?

Well, I seem to think too much about what I can do for the others to consider how I myself can survive. This is definitely not a good habit to keep in this money-oriented world. People don’t believe me, anyway.

(9) Who would you thank in your Oscar acceptance speech?

My husband, who has always loved and supported me.

(10) If you could have any job, what would it be?

My current job, which is publishing Chinese ebooks. I get to translate and promote so many great English-language books to the Chinese world. And it is an amazing feeling that people are actually willing to entrust their books in my hands. It is such a heavy but incredibly sweet burden that I am willing to shoulder all my life.

(11) If you could pick one TV show to live in, which would it be and why?

Star Trek: The Next Generation. I love Data.

OK, so those 11 questions are done… Here are the 11 fellow bloggers I nominate: